ASCII by Jason Scott

Jason Scott's Weblog

Author Archive

Fan Mail of the Month —

To: jason@textfiles.com Subject: this is a bit bizzare how to start well i guess ill just post =-)~ this is from my blog Ok so i had this dream the other night where i walk up to this big building & on it the words TEXTFILES so i go in i walk around for what […]

DRUGWARS —

The research for the documentary took me in many different directions, as I reached out trying to find out any and every possible subject people might be interested in. Cinematic limitations prevented me from throwing everything I learned on the screen, but there was still a lot of neat stuff I pulled up. A lot […]

A Fall in Price —

So, the BBS Documentary went from $50 a set to $40. I’ve been considering this for a little while. Since I’ve never really done all this before, I don’t really know the audience and the choices people make to purchase or not purchase. The economic term is “Price Elasticity of demand” (my dad taught me […]

Rumspringa! —

Well, after some planning, phone calls, meetings and other such work, I’m happy to announce that the Textfiles.com Rumspringa (user meeting and dinner) is a go. All the info is now updated on the page: http://rumspringa.textfiles.com/ Check it out, and if you live in the northeast, consider RSVPing and attending. I’d like to see you […]

And Now a Word From a Marketer —

Date: 12 Sep 2005 16:09:13 -0400 From: Stefanie Koperniak To: ascii@textfiles.com Subject: WGBH Presents “Thinking Big” Jason, I just wanted to give you a heads-up about a new one-week science/technology series on WGBH. The week of Oct. 3-7, WGBH presents “Thinking Big,” a one-week television series that features notable men and women from the fields […]

Giving Back —

I haven’t linked this from the main documentary site yet, because I still have a few more entries to shore up, but I’m fulfilling a promise to myself about having “how I did it” stuff show up on the site. So there’s now The BBS Documentary Production Information. I expect it’ll ultimately have a dozen […]

A Thousand Seven Hundred RTTY Memories —

I had written about the passing of John Sheetz some entries back. This story has a nice (if not, of course, happy) coda. First of all, his widow and children have now recieved copies of the documentary and the original full one-hour interview, which itself is on archive.org and which started off the massive BBS […]

Echoes of Life —

Dr. Hasegawa-San: This message is for your father, who I have not met but whose work and efforts have saved my life. In 1996, my friend sold me his 1988 Toyota Corolla for $200, essentially as a gift, to celebrate my finally becoming a driver. (I learned to drive at 25, having avoided it as […]

Goodbye, Milky —

Without a doubt, the absolute worst way to find out about someone’s death is through referrer logs. Among the people I interviewed for the documentary were a couple in Toronto, who for the purposes of identification were called “Milky and Liz”. We talked about diversi-dials (ddials), early BBS culture, BBS meets, and a whole other […]